Louisa Westropp (born 1858), following a marriage characterised by constant domestic violence, sued her husband for divorce on the grounds of cruelty. Before Irish independence, cruelty was, in theory, legal grounds for divorce.....
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#IrishWomenInHistory #NollaigNamBan ..... but men were considered to have the right to physically 'chastise' their wives, as women at that time had few rights (including the right to custody of their own children) cruelty was almost never cited in #divorce proceedings.
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#IrishWomenInHistory #NollaigNamBan

Françoise Henry was born in Paris in 1902 & grew up in #France, where she studied art & archaeology. She came to Ireland in 1926 to research her thesis on Irish medieval carving, & became deeply fascinated with early Christian #Irish stonework and art.
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#IrishWomenInHistory From 1932 - 1974, Françoise worked for @ucddublin, during which time she published a number of major works on Irish art from the prehistoric period to mediaeval times.
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#IrishWomenInHistory #NollaigNamBan #Art #Archaeology

On #NollaigNamBan we'll be raising a glass/cup of tea to all the women we've featured this year, to honour their victories and challenges as well as their long and short lives. What will you do? Here's a thread with some ideas.
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#IrishWomenInHistory 1) If you have children in your life, you could spend some time with them telling stories about your and/or their female ancestors. Keeping their stories alive in the most traditional of Irish ways; through storytelling.
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#NollaigNamBan #IrishWomenInHistory